Conference

The conference was inspiring and I have so many ideas out learning and assessment. (There were a couple of guys passing notes during the session which I found distracting, and someone stole my pen as I was laboriously trying to take notes - haha). Most things I think I knew, but until you actually hear them, think about them and then speak them, I don't think that the connections were complete. I am going to work on a presentation for my staff tomorrow and so I will spend some time sharing some thoughts with you.

Assessment

I am heading to a conference tonight on Improving Learning Results. Hopefully I will gain some insights and varying opinions on using assessment to improve school results. We are currently working on school goals which if worked on should translate to better scores, and I am completely convinced that focusing on student learning and strategies aimed at certain aspects of curriculum will improve learning and scores.

If we, as educators, focus on problem solving or writing traits with every grade across the curriculum we will or we certainly should produce better problem solvers and writers. Will this necessarily equate to better, well-rounded young adults? Perhaps. I think that working towards these goals along with positive attitudes, hard work, and differentiated instruction will produce better students, and different types of assessments should prove this.

I will reflect on the conference when I am back.

Vokis

Thanks to mrsuff! This voki application is fantastic! Social learning and connectivism at its best!

Apparently now I need a voki... Ok, after volleyball tomorrow I will work on it. Do I need to switch to Wordpress or can I get this somewhere else?

My daughter is in grade 8 and she won first in bantam golf yesterday in Assiniboia. She shot a 48, and she was completely annoyed that she could not play another nine holes. According to her, she has never played a tournament with only nine holes. (I haven't counted how many touranments she has played, but I doubt she has played in an overabundance of them yet.) I am really not over ecstatic that she is golfing, because my son's passion is golfing which has taken him to New Mexico to the University of the Southwest. He just started August 15th and I don't want another child leaving the country. I am somewhat selfish and I want my children within driving distance. He loves it down there and I can barely get him to talk for a minute on the phone.

I am presently teaching some math to grade 8 and I have presented them with the seventeen outcomes. Tomorrow we are going to create math portfolios and they each have to create one item to represent their learning for each outcome. They can redo an assignment, create something new, ask for a performance assessment... We discussed it on Friday, so hopefully it will work. I haven't taught math (which is my favorite) for a couple of years, so it is taking me a bit to get used to it. I am attending Ahead of the Curve this week, so this should guide me in my assessment journey.